Rumors are spreading that the U.S. Supreme Court will vote 5-4 to rule that a U.S. president cannot be prosecuted for anything he does while he is president. Some Democrats are suggesting that Joe Biden bring a gun to his first debate with Donald Trump. If he shoots Trump, he would be immune, but if Trump shoots Biden he would be prosecuted because he is not a sitting president.   read more

Although raised in a Democratic family, Drake, at age 14, volunteered for Republican Barry Goldwater’s presidential campaign. She volunteered again in a presidential campaign, 45 years later, as a member of the Palin Truth Squad to counter “false attacks, rumors and smears" against GOP VP candidate Sarah Palin. Drake became a member of Congress in 2004, winning the House seat vacated by Republican Ed Schrock, who had been accused of having solicited sex on a gay phone dating service.   read more

“How stupid can we be? The Gulf Coast is consistently nailed by hurricanes and yet our government insists on an energy strategy that exacerbates these hurricanes,” said Louisiana Bucket Brigade director Anne Rolfes. “Trump's auctioning off this massive amount of our ocean while at the same time proposing to rollback important environmental and safety requirements... [is] disgusting and nothing but a recipe for more devastating oil spills...” said a Center for Biological Diversity attorney.   read more

Trump's nomination of Rettig, a Beverly Hills tax attorney whose wealthy clients have included Michael Jackson and “Girls Gone Wild” creator Joe Francis, breaks a 20-year precedent of IRS leaders having backgrounds in business or management. A defender of Trump’s refusal to release his tax returns during an audit, Rettig also speculated that Trump “likely pays taxes at a lesser rate than many of us” and that he “may be worth far less than the approximately $10 billion he wants us to believe."   read more

Under Harris' watch at Guantánamo in 2006, three prisoners died while in custody. Harris declared the deaths to be suicides, but an investigation by Harper’s magazine cast considerable doubt on that verdict, suggesting the three were killed during torture/interrogation in a secret part of the base. In 2017, Harris took responsibility for a bewildering chain of events that left the mistaken impression that a U.S. aircraft carrier rushed to confront a belligerent North Korea, when it did not.   read more

A one-time intern at the Department of State and in the U.S. Senate while in college, Appleton eventually joined the staff of Rep. Sam Graves (R-Missouri) before joining Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer’s office as a legislative assistant in 2009. He had previously worked as Luetkemeyer’s policy director during his 2008 Congressional campaign. Appleton was promoted to be Luetkemeyer’s chief of staff in 2009. He remained with Luetkemeyer until leaving in August 2017 for HUD.   read more

An oil company geologist, Reilly turned his childhood dream of becoming an astronaut into reality. His first NASA mission was in 1998 when Endeavour visited the Russian space station. His 2001 space trip was more grueling; he flew aboard Atlantis and performed three spacewalks to help install an airlock on the International Space Station. In 2007 he took two spacewalks devoted to station construction . All told, Reilly spent more than 853 hours in space and performed 31 hours of spacewalks.   read more

Brutus successfully advocated for a tougher rape law in Liberia. She also worked as child fighter coordinator at the UN observer mission in Liberia and in the Children Assistance Program as project coordinator for the USAID war affected youth program. Brutus is a founding member and former president of the Association of Female Lawyers of Liberia. The organization was established in 1994 to offer legal defense for vulnerable women and children who may have suffered extended violence.   read more

Fitzgerald purchased stock in Japan Tobacco, Merck & Co., Bayer, and health insurance company Humana, creating new conflicts of interest, especially in light of CDC’s ongoing work to reduce tobacco consumption—a mission Fitzgerald has claimed to support. Fitzgerald had been appointed by former Secretary of Health and Human Services Tom Price, who was similarly forced to resign last September because of his extravagant use of private planes on the taxpayer dime.   read more

Madison started her career as a press assistant to Rep. Porter Goss. In 2006, as deputy assistant secretary for the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, she visited Nicaragua six months before presidential elections and urged Nicaraguans to oppose Daniel Ortega and José Rizo, whom she referred to as “two corrupt warlords who represent a return to a dark, selfish and unproductive past.” Despite her efforts, Ortega won the election, albeit with only 38% of the vote in a five-candidate contest.   read more

Thomas, who works as a field representative for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, joined the Kentucky state government in 2004 as special counsel and adviser on the Kentucky Environmental Cabinet. He also served as federal facilities coordinator, ensuring they conformed to the state’s environmental rules. Thomas joined the Kentucky Infrastructure Authority in 2007 as its executive director. He transferred to the private sector in 2009 to work for mechanical contractor Swift and Staley.   read more

A former foreign minister with high level ambassadorial experience, Reyes left the foreign service in 2008 and took a job at the University of Rosario in Bogotá. For two years, he was in charge of the “Light Weapons and Small Arms, Ammunition, and Explosives Observatory,” which focuses on armed violence in Colombia. In 2010, he became executive director of the Colombian American Chamber of Commerce, which represents the economic interests of Colombian and American business.   read more

Prado’s appointment as ambassador is seen by some as an opportunity for President Trump to fill Prado's seat on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals with a more conservative judge. Seated on that bench since 2003, Prado wrote an opinion that dismissed the NRA’s challenge to the law prohibiting gun dealers to sell weapons to people aged 18-20. He also reversed Texas’ law banning inmates from having 4-inch beards outside a cell or religious service.   read more

The director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics is traditionally an expert in statistics. But Anderson’s only background in statistics touted by the White House was his co-creation of a computer rankings system for college football. A prolific writer for right-wing publications and an early endorser of Trump for president, Anderson founded the 2017 Project, which promotes such conservative ideas as lower taxes; anti-immigrant issues; and less regulation, particularly on environment matters.   read more

Rizzuto is senior VP at Conair, where his late father was chairman. Not known to be an expert on the Caribbean, Rizzuto contributed $449,000 to Trump’s campaign. Like his father, who had pleaded guilty to a multimillion-dollar tax evasion scheme, Rizzuto Jr. has also run afoul of the law. At his 100-acre Connecticut compound, Rizzuto filled in wetlands, demolished and renovated old buildings—without permits. He eventually had to pay $35,000 in fines and legal costs and restore the wetlands.   read more

Olsen was deputy director of the Peace Corps from 2002 until the early days of the Obama administration, and served briefly as acting director in 2006 and 2009. She also served as acting country director for Kazakhstan. Olsen has been a visiting professor at the University of Maryland School of Social Work in Baltimore since 2010. She also was director of the Center for Global Education Initiatives and spent several summers heading research projects in Malawi, El Salvador, and India.   read more

Cairncross has no background in development aid to poor countries, which is the mission of the organization he was nominated to lead. He was, however, former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus’ assistant, a position whose days were numbered after Priebus was ousted six months into Trump's presidency. Years earlier, as counsel for the Republican National Committee, Cairncross helped push the GOP's “voter fraud” agenda, coming out against voter registration efforts and pushing voter ID laws.   read more